Black Hole Chaos The Environments of the most super- massive black holes in the Universe Belinda Wilkes, Chandra X-ray Center, CfA Francesca Civano, CfA

Black Hole Matter spiraling inwards → accretion disk Nothing beats gravity → collapses forever Light cannot escape from inside the event horizon

Stellar Mass Black Hole Big, old star blows up Can be seen when in binary star systems BH pulls matter from companion star Bright, variable/bursting sources BH and accretion disk StarJet

Black Hole: Mass and Spin Properties determine their effects on their surroundings Spinning BH has a smaller “size” (event horizon is closer in) No spinWith spin

Super-massive Black Hole (SMBH) Galaxy-sized! Formed in centers of galaxies in early Universe 1 million – 1 billion times Sun’s mass SMBH size ~ our solar system (15 lt mins) SMBH grows as material falls in

Central Regions: Accretion Disk spinning around SMBH Matter spirals in to galactic center and forms an accretion disk (~few lt.yrs.) Becomes very hot and outshines the 10 billion stars in the host galaxy → Quasar Hottest near center X-rays good clear view, even when edge-on BH grows as matter falls in Other matter is pushed outwards: jets, winds

Artist’s Impressions! But this one is real: Cen A

Model of Polar Jets Proga et al Accretion with latitude-dependent angular momentum and radial magnetic field can launch and sustain a jet

Radio Jets Electrons spiral around magnetic field at velocities close to light Emit radio-X-rays “non- thermal” emission radio

Chandra X-ray Observatory NASA’s X-ray Eye on the Universe Launched in 1999

Actual Chandra First Light Point source to focus telescope PKS , quasar at large distance (z=0.5, 3 Gpc) Shadow on side! Known to have radio jet X-ray Jet visible: 5” long, 200,000 lyrs

X-ray/Radio Jets in Quasars: M87 Galaxy M87 jet in X-ray, radio and optical

More jets! Cygnus A radio 3C273 X-ray MS Radio/X-ray

Accretion Disk Winds Wind blown off surface of accretion disk Accelerated by radiation pressure High velocity gas observed Proga et al AD surface X-ray source

How do SMBHs form and grow? Secular: accreting from within the galaxy Group: accretes from within the group of galaxies Cosmological: accretes from cold dark matter filaments Major Mergers: Hopkins et al (2008)